RANDOM LIFE

2009 was a pretty tough year through and through. Being pushed to the limit in more ways than one was challenging and wore down our souls and bodies. It will be really nice to put this year to rest and move on to better things. We're ending this 365 days of madness with five shows throughout our home state.

January 28th we play at Los Angeles' Pehrspace which is probably the place we'll have played the most (a whopping three times). Other bands include Hiking! and two or three I can't remember the names of. Sean Carnage is putting it on and I believe it starts at 9PM. His events are always a blast so hopefully you can make it.

January 29th is at the Elbo Room in San Francisco with the amazing Alaric and Portland's Artriarch. This is the show I am most excited about. Who said goth, post punk and doom metal couldn't skip down the street hand in hand happily ever after?

On the 30th we play our second show in Sacramento at the Hub. Chelsea Wolfe and two others are opening. I've heard it's a really great place to play and Sacramento has always been fun.

Our New Years Eve celebration will commence at Oakland's Stork Club with the always amazing Swann Danger. It's a Death Rock Dive Bar event and is free before 10PM. We play at 11PM. There will be DJ's and booze as well so you can't go wrong.

Finally, Santa Barbara's Muddy Waters' Coffee House will host us, Sea Lions and two others for an all ages affair in a city we've never even really been to.

We have seven inches, shirts, 12" EP's and a bunch of other stuff for sale. Bring some cash if you inclined to do so.

Also, Mishka just released their top 100 albums of 2009 list. Our forthcoming LP "Judged By 12, Carried By 6" was voted number #5 of the year. We are pretty amazed and happy about that.

CALIFORNIA TOUR

Last couple Bay Area shows were ridiculous. ENTERTAINMENT are back home recouping from our little California tour together. Gilman and Silver Factory were definite highlights. Tonight we're playing at the Che Cafe with BEATERS, NO PAWS NO LIONS, ANCIENT CRUX and THE PRETEENS. It's a benefit for the venue and there will be a raffle. Next Friday we play the Whistlestop with STREET OF LITTLE GIRLS. It's not all ages though.

At the end of this month we're doing another jaunt up the coast to the Bay Area and back. Every show is really shaping up to be great.

DECEMBER 28th.
------------------------
BLESSURE GRAVE
+ 3 MORE TBA
------------------------
@ PEHRSPACE //
LOS ANGELES, CA //
SEANCARNAGE.COM

DECEMBER 29th.
------------------------
BLESSURE GRAVE
ATRIARCH (MEMS. MAGICK DAGGERS/GET HUSTLE/BEHALF)
ALARIC
------------------------
@ THE ELBO ROOM //
SAN FRANCISCO, CA //
ELBO.COM

DECEMBER 30th.
------------------------
BLESSURE GRAVE
CHELSEA WOLFE
+ 1 MORE TBA
------------------------
@ THE HUB //
SACRAMENTO, CA //
UNDIETACOS.ORG

DECEMBER 31st.
------------------------
'DEATH ROCK DIVE BAR NEW YEARS PARTY'
BLESSURE GRAVE
+ 1 MORE TBA
DJ DEATHBOY
DJ MINA
------------------------
@ THE STORK CLUB //
OAKLAND, CA //
MYSPACE.COM/DRDB613

ONE OR TWO MORE SHOWS TBA.

UPCOMING RELEASES

A big thank you to Silver Factory Studios for putting together an awesome and memorable night last Friday the 13th. Bestial Mouths and Full Frontal are both great bands made up of wonderful people and the Silver Factory cut no corners in their attempt to present a sensory overload of sound, vision and taste (the vodka cranberries were delicious). It's refreshing to see a venue that does not just put a band on stage and let them take it from there. People were in their own worlds, either enjoying the sounds, projecting film onto acts while they played, etc.

"Judged By 12, Carried By 6" is finally coming to a close production wise. The layout will be completed this week with the help of unofficial sixth member Patrick Martin. He put together some amazing slides and photographs and captured the feel of what we're going for perfectly. The LP version is limited to 500 copies and will be issued by Release the Bats ASAP. RTB was our first choice of a label when we started so it's great that Matthias is doing our first album on vinyl. Equally good news is the fact that Gary and Sean's Alien8 Recordings imprint will be handling the CD and digital formats. We've been fans of this label for a great deal of time due to the fact that they do not back down from releasing what they like and doing a great job of it in the process. The CD version features four bonus songs taken from the "Learn to Love the Rope" 12" on Captured Tracks. Mastering and editing by James Plotkin. All around something we've become increasingly more and more excited about.

Silencio Recordings, which is run by Lou (a true Southwestern Gentleman) will be releasing a split 7" between us and Bestial Mouths. Chris, Lynette and co. are becoming one of our favorite bands to play with. They completely floored us on the 13th.

We will also be contributing two Guided By Voices covers to a split 7" with the Prids from Portland, OR. No label confirmed for this yet, but it's sure to be an awesome tribute to one of our favorite bands.

UNTITLED EIGHT

Bay Area weekend was really fun. Fox Rent-A-Car tried to ruin our ability to even get there, but after that was worked out we hit the road in comfortably cramped Town & Country. Seven or eight hours later we arrived in lovely San Francisco and stopped by Nick's sister's house to wash up.

Kimos is an ex-Transvestite bar with a club above it that has shows. That means carrying equipment up a staircase which is always a great time. Entropy Density opened the show and channeled elements of Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Sex Gang Children at their weirdest. Our set was loud and disorienting. I'll leave it at that. Entertainment closed the night sounding just as we had hoped they would and after wards we talked shit and hung out as we loaded our matching rental vans like some Bi-Coastal Goth Mafia.

Up the street at a pizza place afterwards, four norms tried to fight some gnarly buff guy and almost got reduced to black smoke. They literally stood inside terrified while this man hung outside waiting to eat their souls. Egging them on and making them feel pathetic became the highlight of everyone in the pizza place's night. The girl's next to us had a field day.

After a lazy morning in Berkeley we did the obvious: ate at Nations and shopped at Amoeba. Reyna came out with cheap DVD's in tow and I snagged a book. They sell records there too ya know? Sean picked up cassette tapes and we went back to our friends Patrick & Miguelito's house for nap time till the other boys arrived.

924 Gilman is a place I've always wanted to visit since I was at least thirteen. Fourteen years later I actually got to, and it was not what I expected, but nonetheless perfect in most every way (the bathrooms seemed scary). The basketball hoop was a definite highlight, as were tables with adequate space for five band's worth of merch. It was literally a goth yard sale that night. Every band was fucking awesome and the people who came filled the place up nicely and were there to enjoy music, not beer. I mention this because it is not the same game down here in San Diego. Secret Tones made the trek up and it was great to see the two of them. They are great as a two-piece so don't let Ryan tell you otherwise. Our set was easily my favorite we've ever played. Entertainment sounded great but the highlight of my night was Swann Danger. Commanding stage performance plus great drumming plus the best bass tone ever = recipe for perfection. New Thrill Parade proved that you could put seven people on stage with disasterously awesome results! They were fucking great.

Nick and Sean spent the night breaking into hot tubs while Jacob, Reyna and I got cozy and fell asleep back at Patrick's. The drive home yesterday was relaxing and fun. Zero negatives to mention and thanks to everyone we played with and who came out. We made many new friends!

Also....

THURSDAY // MUSIC TRADER SAN DIEGO.
BLESSURE GRAVE / ENTERTAINMENT / WET HAIR / TALK NORMAL.
9PM ALL AGES FREE!

FRIDAY // SILVER FACTORY LOS ANGELES.
BLESSURE GRAVE / ENTERTAINMENT / BESTIAL MOUTHS / + 1 MORE.
10PM 21+ RSVP!!!

These are shaping up to be mindblowing shows. Be there and be scared!

ENTERTAINMENT / BLESSURE GRAVE MINI TOUR

It's 6:55AM and I'm up cutting CD covers out, thinking about what I should eat and preparing for the weekend. Our new friends ENTERTAINMENT from Atlanta, GA are either in the Bay Area as we speak or boarding a plane momentarily. They released a really great LP on the Duchess' Archives and we're really excited to play some shows with a like-minded band from across the country. Bestial Mouths, Secret Tones, Warm Hands, Entertainment and a bunch of others are doing something awesome for "dark music" (I won't call it goth and start a debate on who's what and how I need to go back to bed). All these bills are great shows and we are playing with some of my absolute favorite bands currently making music back to back to back so all in all this should be a memorable eight days.

11/07/09 // San Francisco, CA @ Kimos w/ Entropy Density.
11/08/09 // Berkeley, CA @ 924 Gilman w/ New Thrill Parade, Swann Danger & Secret Tones. 5PM EARLY SHOW!!!
11/12/09 // San Diego, CA @ Music Trader w/ Wet Hair & Talk Normal.
11/13/09 // Los Angeles, CA @ The Silver Factory w/ Bestial Mouths.

You need to RSVP for the Silver Factory show by either writing them on myspace or sending us a message or e-mail.

We also have stuff for sale over the next few days. Two new singles, our 12", shirts, buttons and a five song CDR of new and upcoming stuff. Also have a surprise for kids who like vinyl so come out and see what that is.

UNTITLED SEVEN

So we leave tomorrow for a mini-tour of sorts. Four shows with our friends Entertainment from Atlanta, Georgia over the next eight days. Hardly keeping busy, but oh well.

First of all, we are in negotiations with Montreal's ALIEN8 RECORDINGS over the CD and digital release of "Judged By 12, Carried By 6". They have put out a lot of great records by bands like Les Georges Leningrad, The Unicorns, Black Feelings, Lee Renaldo and Acid Mothers Temple. Expect an early '10 release. The Release The Bats LP version will be out in December, limited to 500 copies. More info as we have it.

We also have shirts for sale. The first batch sold out in a day but we'll have more after these shows with Entertainment. We have white on black and burgundy on white. They are $12 ppd in the United States and $17 ppd everywhere else. If you want more than one, it can be cheaper via combined shipping. Just send us an e-mail and we'll work it out. New design coming soon.

We have split 7"s with the Prids, Bestial Mouths and Wetdog on the horizon.

That's pretty much it for now. Another update before we leave tomorrow if I find the time.

UNTITLED SIX

We curated a mixtape for ACTUAL PAIN called "Darklands". It's 22 songs and well over an hour of post punk, goth, early new wave, synth pop and neo folk. Really something for everyone, as long as part of you enjoys moping around a bit more than having "fun". It should be up later tonight or tomorrow so go to the website and check that stuff out and download the other mixes while you wait. Fenriz from DARKTHRONE did the last one!!! What the fuck!?

For those coming to Part Time Punks Fest, we'll have two new singles for sale. Come say "hi" and buy them if you feel inclined to do so.

And here is a free download of a song we have a hard time fitting anywhere else. Originally recorded for the Hollow Tongues project but scraped, I listened to this the other day and think it's kind of cool so here it is for download. It features Catholic Pat and Edmund Xavier of Teenage Panzerkorps on all instruments with T. Grave freestyling vocals. This is NOT a Blessure Grave song... it sounds like TPK covering the Doors.

"Ashes"